Ethnopharmacological relevanceFrankincense oil and water extracts (FOE, FWE) have long been used for external treatment of inflammation and pain. The present study was conducted to identify the active ingredients responsible for the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects and to determine the underlying mechanisms.
Materials and methods
The compositions of FOE and FWE were identified and compared by GC–MS. The anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of the two extracts and their possible active ingredients (α-pinene, linalool, and 1-octanol) were evaluated and compared in a xylene-induced ear edema model and a formalin-inflamed hind paw model. Inflammatory infiltrates and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression in hind paw skin were investigated by histological staining.
Results
The contents of α-pinene, linalool, and 1-octanol in FOE were much higher than those in FWE. Mice treated with FOE exhibited greater and faster lessening of swelling and pain than mice treated with FWE. The combination of the three components had more potent pharmacological effects on hind paw inflammation and COX-2 overexpression than the three components used alone.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that topical application of FOE or its active ingredients (including α-pinene, linalool, and 1-octanol) exhibit significantly anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects through inhibiting nociceptive stimulus-induced inflammatory infiltrates and COX-2 overexpression.
In “Poeticizing Ecology/Ecologizing Poetry: Reading Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘Poem’ Ecologically,” we argue that ecological poetry is a kind of ecopoetry that undergirds “nature poetry” and environmental/activist poetry. Ecological poetry is also best put into conversation with deconstruction. This argument, informed by Timothy Morton’s claim that “deconstruction and ecology should talk to one another,” entails challenging previous arguments about what counts as ecopoetry but also the status of the lyric in general. We synthesize James Longenbach’s position in The Resistance of Poetry with Nick Selby’s argument in “Ecopoetries in America” to examine the relationship between close reading and reading ecologically. Rather than an ethical stance perceived in the content of the poem, to read ecologically requires attention to form and linguistic indeterminacy, not only because deconstruction and ecology are alike, but also because poetry is comprised of language, the usage of which “revels in duplicity and disjunction.” Deconstruction is the best approach to divergent perspectives on nature, or the way a poem offers, in Nick Selby’s view, not a clear purchase or single overarching view, but “a struggle to get nature right.” We contend that to give space to alterity, to allow the otherness not only of nature but also of language itself in its capacity for referentiality is to expand the “marked” space of ecology (in the terms set forth by G. Spencer Brown’s Laws of Form). We support this claim with a reading of Bishop’s “Poem,” which we acknowledge as an atypical choice for what constitutes ecological poetry. A borderline ekphrastic poem, “Poem” allows us to talk not only about the space inherent in nature and language but between text and image, or poem and painting. What we find in our reading of Bishop’s “Poem” is a contingency between the poem and the painting, rather than a classical attempt of one to overpower the other, to speak for the other as the more authoritative sign. We find the uncanny or strange quality of Bishop’s ekphrastic approach to an amateurish painting that she calls “sketch” a way to further substantiate Morton’s claim about the relevance of deconstruction to ecology. Through our reading of the poem we argue that no entity completely coincides with itself because ecological thinking has helped us to see how every entity is shot-through with traces of the other; we ourselves are made up of other lifeforms; life is made up of nonlife. To think ecologically is to think the other within the self (especially including all the nonhuman others), within any entity whatsoever.
Major depressive disorder is often chronic and characterized by relapse and recurrence despite successful treatments to induce remission. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was developed as a means of preventing relapse for individuals in remission using cognitive interventions. In addition, MBCT has preliminarily been found to be useful in treating active depression. This current investigation is unique in evaluating the long-term outcome of individuals with active depression who achieved remission with MBCT. Eighteen participants who achieved remission after an 8-week MBCT group were seen for evaluation at a mean follow-up interval of 48.7 months (SD = 10.2) after completing treatment. The current study shows that in these participants, the gains achieved after the initial treatment including remission of depression, decreased rumination, decreased anxiety, and increased mindfulness continued for up to 58.9 months of follow-up. The data suggest that all levels of depression from less recurrent and mild to more recurrent and severe were responsive to MBCT. The average number of minutes per week of continued practice in our cohort was 210, but the number of minutes of practice did not correlate with depression outcomes. MBCT's effects may be more related to regularity of practice than specific quantity. This study provides a preliminary exploration of MBCT's long-term effects, which can aid in future research with a typically chronic illness.
Major depressive disorder is often chronic and characterized by relapse and recurrence despite successful treatments to induce remission. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was developed as a means of preventing relapse for individuals in remission using cognitive interventions. In addition, MBCT has preliminarily been found to be useful in treating active depression. This current investigation is unique in evaluating the long-term outcome of individuals with active depression who achieved remission with MBCT. Eighteen participants who achieved remission after an 8-week MBCT group were seen for evaluation at a mean follow-up interval of 48.7 months (SD = 10.2) after completing treatment. The current study shows that in these participants, the gains achieved after the initial treatment including remission of depression, decreased rumination, decreased anxiety, and increased mindfulness continued for up to 58.9 months of follow-up. The data suggest that all levels of depression from less recurrent and mild to more recurrent and severe were responsive to MBCT. The average number of minutes per week of continued practice in our cohort was 210, but the number of minutes of practice did not correlate with depression outcomes. MBCT's effects may be more related to regularity of practice than specific quantity. This study provides a preliminary exploration of MBCT's long-term effects, which can aid in future research with a typically chronic illness.
Major depressive disorder is often chronic and characterized by relapse and recurrence despite successful treatments to induce remission. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was developed as a means of preventing relapse for individuals in remission using cognitive interventions. In addition, MBCT has preliminarily been found to be useful in treating active depression. This current investigation is unique in evaluating the long-term outcome of individuals with active depression who achieved remission with MBCT. Eighteen participants who achieved remission after an 8-week MBCT group were seen for evaluation at a mean follow-up interval of 48.7 months (SD = 10.2) after completing treatment. The current study shows that in these participants, the gains achieved after the initial treatment including remission of depression, decreased rumination, decreased anxiety, and increased mindfulness continued for up to 58.9 months of follow-up. The data suggest that all levels of depression from less recurrent and mild to more recurrent and severe were responsive to MBCT. The average number of minutes per week of continued practice in our cohort was 210, but the number of minutes of practice did not correlate with depression outcomes. MBCT's effects may be more related to regularity of practice than specific quantity. This study provides a preliminary exploration of MBCT's long-term effects, which can aid in future research with a typically chronic illness.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability in the developed world, yet broadly effective treatments remain elusive. The primary aim of this pilot study was to investigate the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) monotherapy, compared to sertraline monotherapy, for patients with acute MDD. This open-label, nonrandomized controlled trial examined a MBCT cohort (N = 23) recruited to match the gender, age, and depression severity of a depressed control group (N = 20) that completed 8 weeks of monotherapy with the antidepressant sertraline. The 17-item clinician-rated Hamilton Depression Severity Rating Scale (HAMD-17) was the primary outcome measure of depression to assess overall change after 8 weeks and rates of response and remission. The 16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Report (QIDS-SR16) was the secondary outcome measure to further assess depression severity. Both cohorts were demographically similar and showed significant improvement in depression ratings. No difference was found in the degree of change in HAMD-17 scores (t(34) = 1.42, p = 0.165) between groups. Secondary analysis showed statistically significant differences in mean scores of the QIDS-SR16 (t(32) = 4.39, p < 0.0001), with the MBCT group showing greater mean improvement. This study was limited by the small sample size and non-randomized, non-blinded design. Preliminary findings suggest that an 8-week course of MBCT monotherapy may be effective in treating MDD and is a viable alternative to antidepressant medication. Greater changes in the self-rated QIDS-SR16 for the MBCT cohort raise the possibility that patients derive additional subjective benefit from enhanced self-efficacy skills.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability in the developed world, yet broadly effective treatments remain elusive. The primary aim of this pilot study was to investigate the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) monotherapy, compared to sertraline monotherapy, for patients with acute MDD. This open-label, nonrandomized controlled trial examined a MBCT cohort (N = 23) recruited to match the gender, age, and depression severity of a depressed control group (N = 20) that completed 8 weeks of monotherapy with the antidepressant sertraline. The 17-item clinician-rated Hamilton Depression Severity Rating Scale (HAMD-17) was the primary outcome measure of depression to assess overall change after 8 weeks and rates of response and remission. The 16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Report (QIDS-SR16) was the secondary outcome measure to further assess depression severity. Both cohorts were demographically similar and showed significant improvement in depression ratings. No difference was found in the degree of change in HAMD-17 scores (t(34) = 1.42, p = 0.165) between groups. Secondary analysis showed statistically significant differences in mean scores of the QIDS-SR16 (t(32) = 4.39, p < 0.0001), with the MBCT group showing greater mean improvement. This study was limited by the small sample size and non-randomized, non-blinded design. Preliminary findings suggest that an 8-week course of MBCT monotherapy may be effective in treating MDD and is a viable alternative to antidepressant medication. Greater changes in the self-rated QIDS-SR16 for the MBCT cohort raise the possibility that patients derive additional subjective benefit from enhanced self-efficacy skills.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability in the developed world, yet broadly effective treatments remain elusive. The primary aim of this pilot study was to investigate the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) monotherapy, compared to sertraline monotherapy, for patients with acute MDD. This open-label, nonrandomized controlled trial examined a MBCT cohort (N = 23) recruited to match the gender, age, and depression severity of a depressed control group (N = 20) that completed 8 weeks of monotherapy with the antidepressant sertraline. The 17-item clinician-rated Hamilton Depression Severity Rating Scale (HAMD-17) was the primary outcome measure of depression to assess overall change after 8 weeks and rates of response and remission. The 16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Report (QIDS-SR16) was the secondary outcome measure to further assess depression severity. Both cohorts were demographically similar and showed significant improvement in depression ratings. No difference was found in the degree of change in HAMD-17 scores (t(34) = 1.42, p = 0.165) between groups. Secondary analysis showed statistically significant differences in mean scores of the QIDS-SR16 (t(32) = 4.39, p < 0.0001), with the MBCT group showing greater mean improvement. This study was limited by the small sample size and non-randomized, non-blinded design. Preliminary findings suggest that an 8-week course of MBCT monotherapy may be effective in treating MDD and is a viable alternative to antidepressant medication. Greater changes in the self-rated QIDS-SR16 for the MBCT cohort raise the possibility that patients derive additional subjective benefit from enhanced self-efficacy skills.
Purpose:The purpose of this substudy of a large randomized controlled trial was to evaluate the efficacy of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (Breast Cancer) (MBSR[BC]) program compared to usual care (UC) in normalizing blood levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines among breast cancer survivors (BCS).
Method:
A total of 322 BCS were randomized to either a 6-week MBSR(BC) program or a UC. At baseline and 6 and 12 weeks, 10 ml of venous blood and demographic and clinical data were collected and/or updated. Plasma cytokines (interleukin [IL]-1β, IL-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor [TNF] α, transforming growth factor [TGF] β1, soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor [sTNFR] 1) were assayed. Linear mixed models were used to assess cytokine levels across three time points (baseline and 6 and 12 weeks) by group (MBSR[BC] vs. UC).
Results:
Of the six measured cytokines, three were nondetectable at rates greater than 50% (IL-10, IL-1β, TGF-β1) and, because of overall low prevalence, were not analyzed further. For the remaining cytokines (TNFα, IL-6, sTNFR1), results showed that TNFα and IL-6 increased during the follow-up period (between 6 and 12 weeks) rather than during the MBSR(BC) training period (between baseline and 6 weeks), while sTNFR1 levels did not change significantly across the 12-week period.
Conclusions:
Study results suggest that MBSR(BC) affects cytokine levels in BCS, mainly with increases in TNFα and IL-6. The data further suggest that B-cell modulation may be a part of immune recovery during breast cancer management and that increases in TNFα and IL-6 may be markers for MBSR(BC)-related recovery.
OBJECTIVES: Considerable morbidity persists among survivors of breast cancer (BC) including high levels of psychological stress, anxiety, depression, fear of recurrence, and physical symptoms including pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbances, and impaired quality of life. Effective interventions are needed during this difficult transitional period.METHODS: We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 84 female BC survivors (Stages 0-III) recruited from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer and Research Institute. All subjects were within 18 months of treatment completion with surgery and adjuvant radiation and/or chemotherapy. Subjects were randomly assigned to a 6-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program designed to self-regulate arousal to stressful circumstances or symptoms (n=41) or to usual care (n=43). Outcome measures compared at 6 weeks by random assignment included validated measures of psychological status (depression, anxiety, perceived stress, fear of recurrence, optimism, social support) and psychological and physical subscales of quality of life (SF-36).
RESULTS: Compared with usual care, subjects assigned to MBSR(BC) had significantly lower (two-sided p<0.05) adjusted mean levels of depression (6.3 vs 9.6), anxiety (28.3 vs 33.0), and fear of recurrence (9.3 vs 11.6) at 6 weeks, along with higher energy (53.5 vs 49.2), physical functioning (50.1 vs 47.0), and physical role functioning (49.1 vs 42.8). In stratified analyses, subjects more compliant with MBSR tended to experience greater improvements in measures of energy and physical functioning.
CONCLUSIONS: Among BC survivors within 18 months of treatment completion, a 6-week MBSR(BC) program resulted in significant improvements in psychological status and quality of life compared with usual care.
Objectives: Considerable morbidity persists among survivors of breast cancer (BC) including high levels of psychological stress, anxiety, depression, fear of recurrence, and physical symptoms including pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbances, and impaired quality of life. Effective interventions are needed during this difficult transitional period.Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 84 female BC survivors (Stages 0–III) recruited from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer and Research Institute. All subjects were within 18 months of treatment completion with surgery and adjuvant radiation and/or chemotherapy. Subjects were randomly assigned to a 6‐week Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program designed to self‐regulate arousal to stressful circumstances or symptoms (n=41) or to usual care (n=43). Outcome measures compared at 6 weeks by random assignment included validated measures of psychological status (depression, anxiety, perceived stress, fear of recurrence, optimism, social support) and psychological and physical subscales of quality of life (SF‐36).
Results: Compared with usual care, subjects assigned to MBSR(BC) had significantly lower (two‐sided p<0.05) adjusted mean levels of depression (6.3 vs 9.6), anxiety (28.3 vs 33.0), and fear of recurrence (9.3 vs 11.6) at 6 weeks, along with higher energy (53.5 vs 49.2), physical functioning (50.1 vs 47.0), and physical role functioning (49.1 vs 42.8). In stratified analyses, subjects more compliant with MBSR tended to experience greater improvements in measures of energy and physical functioning.
Conclusions: Among BC survivors within 18 months of treatment completion, a 6‐week MBSR(BC) program resulted in significant improvements in psychological status and quality of life compared with usual care.
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Humans tend to use the self as a reference point to perceive the world and gain information about other people's mental states. However, applying such a self-referential projection mechanism in situations where it is inappropriate can result in egocentrically biased judgments. To assess egocentricity bias in the emotional domain (EEB), we developed a novel visuo-tactile paradigm assessing the degree to which empathic judgments are biased by one's own emotions if they are incongruent to those of the person we empathize with. A first behavioral experiment confirmed the existence of such EEB, and two independent fMRI experiments revealed that overcoming biased empathic judgments is associated with increased activation in the right supramarginal gyrus (rSMG), in a location distinct from activations in right temporoparietal junction reported in previous social cognition studies. Using temporary disruption of rSMG with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation resulted in a substantial increase of EEB, and so did reducing visuo-tactile stimulation time as shown in an additional behavioral experiment. Our findings provide converging evidence from multiple methods and experiments that rSMG is crucial for overcoming emotional egocentricity. Effective connectivity analyses suggest that this may be achieved by early perceptual regulation processes disambiguating proprioceptive first-person information (touch) from exteroceptive third-person information (vision) during incongruency between self- and other-related affective states. Our study extends previous models of social cognition. It shows that although shared neural networks may underlie emotional understanding in some situations, an additional mechanism subserved by rSMG is needed to avoid biased social judgments in other situations.
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Functional neuroimaging investigations in the fields of social neuroscience and neuroeconomics indicate that the anterior insular cortex (AI) is consistently involved in empathy, compassion, and interpersonal phenomena such as fairness and cooperation. These findings suggest that AI plays an important role in social emotions, hereby defined as affective states that arise when we interact with other people and that depend on the social context. After we link the role of AI in social emotions to interoceptive awareness and the representation of current global emotional states, we will present a model suggesting that AI is not only involved in representing current states, but also in predicting emotional states relevant to the self and others. This model also proposes that AI enables us to learn about emotional states as well as about the uncertainty attached to events, and implies that AI plays a dominant role in decision making in complex and uncertain environments. Our review further highlights that dorsal and ventro-central, as well as anterior and posterior subdivisions of AI potentially subserve different functions and guide different aspects of behavioral regulation. We conclude with a section summarizing different routes to understanding other people’s actions, feelings and thoughts, emphasizing the notion that the predominant role of AI involves understanding others’ feeling and bodily states rather than their action intentions or abstract beliefs.
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Emotions seem to play a critical role in moral judgment. However, the way in which emotions exert their influence on moral judgments is still poorly understood. This study proposes a novel theoretical approach suggesting that emotions influence moral judgments based on their motivational dimension. We tested the effects of two types of induced emotions with equal valence but with different motivational implications (anger and disgust), and four types of moral scenarios (disgust-related, impersonal, personal, and beliefs) on moral judgments. We hypothesized and found that approach motivation associated with anger would make moral judgments more permissible, while disgust, associated with withdrawal motivation, would make them less permissible. Moreover, these effects varied as a function of the type of scenario: the induced emotions only affected moral judgments concerning impersonal and personal scenarios, while we observed no effects for the other scenarios. These findings suggest that emotions can play an important role in moral judgment, but that their specific effects depend upon the type of emotion induced. Furthermore, induced emotion effects were more prevalent for moral decisions in personal and impersonal scenarios, possibly because these require the performance of an action rather than making an abstract judgment. We conclude that the effects of induced emotions on moral judgments can be predicted by taking their motivational dimension into account. This finding has important implications for moral psychology, as it points toward a previously overlooked mechanism linking emotions to moral judgments.
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People show autonomic responses when they empathize with the suffering of another person. However, little is known about how these autonomic changes are related to prosocial behavior. We measured skin conductance responses (SCRs) and affect ratings in participants while either receiving painful stimulation themselves, or observing pain being inflicted on another person. In a later session, they could prevent the infliction of pain in the other by choosing to endure pain themselves. Our results show that the strength of empathy-related vicarious skin conductance responses predicts later costly helping. Moreover, the higher the match between SCR magnitudes during the observation of pain in others and SCR magnitude during self pain, the more likely a person is to engage in costly helping. We conclude that prosocial motivation is fostered by the strength of the vicarious autonomic response as well as its match with first-hand autonomic experience.
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The phenomenon of empathy entails the ability to share the affective experiences of others. In recent years social neuroscience made considerable progress in revealing the mechanisms that enable a person to feel what another is feeling. The present review provides an in-depth and critical discussion of these findings. Consistent evidence shows that sharing the emotions of others is associated with activation in neural structures that are also active during the first-hand experience of that emotion. Part of the neural activation shared between self- and other-related experiences seems to be rather automatically activated. However, recent studies also show that empathy is a highly flexible phenomenon, and that vicarious responses are malleable with respect to a number of factors—such as contextual appraisal, the interpersonal relationship between empathizer and other, or the perspective adopted during observation of the other. Future investigations are needed to provide more detailed insights into these factors and their neural underpinnings. Questions such as whether individual differences in empathy can be explained by stable personality traits, whether we can train ourselves to be more empathic, and how empathy relates to prosocial behavior are of utmost relevance for both science and society.
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Deity yoga is the meditative practice of imagining oneself as an ideal being, fully endowed with compassion, wisdom, and their resultant altruistic activities. The idea is that by imagining being a Buddha one gets closer to actually achieving Buddhahood. Tantric Techniques offers a complete system of Tantric meditation comparing the views of three seminal Tibetan authors on deity yoga and on issues such as how to safeguard against psychological inflation and how to use negative emotions on the path.
Empathy plays an important role in comprehensive nursingcare. Empathy outcome research shows that exposure to an
empathetic person has a palliative and even healing effect
on patients. Teaching nurses how to communicate with
empathy is crucial to unleash the true potential that
empathy has to transform and heal. Four active listening
skills and six compassion-based skills are defined. A
suggested training rubric appropriate for use in multiple
training contexts is provided.
<p>This book first presents the final exposition of special insight by Tsong-kha-pa, the founder of the Ge-luk-pa order of Tibetan Buddhism, in his 'Medium-Length Exposition of the Stages of the Path', as well as the sections on the object of negation and ont he two truths in his 'Illumination of the Thought: Extensive Explanation of (Chandrakirti's) "Supplement to (Nagarjuna's) 'Treatise on the Middle.'"' It then details the views of his predecessor Dol-på-pa Shay-rap Gyel-tsen, the seminal author of philosophical treatises of the Jo-nang-pa order, as found in his 'Mountain Doctrine', followed by an analysis of Tsong-kha-pa's reactions. By contrasting the two systems - Dol-på-pa's doctrine of other-emptiness and Tsong-kha-pa's doctrine of self-emptiness - both views emerge more clearly, contributing to a fuller picture of reality as viewed in Tibetan Buddhism.</p>
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